To What End?

As a solopreneur I’m responsible for not just the actual work I do, but also the marketing, sales, customer service, and financial management of my business. Popular advice for people like me, whose livelihood depends directly on our own effort (instead of a regular paycheck) is to “hustle” or “grind” to win as many clients as possible, garner ever-increasing revenue, and showcase our expertise as superior to others in our fields. 

Just the words “hustle” and “grind” exhaust me. They imply that I should expend myself for the singular goal of achievement and its trappings. To gain another notch in my belt, pad my bank account, and/or revel in the esteem of social media approval. Striving for these worldly perks isn’t solely the plight of solopreneurs: we’re all vulnerable to wanting them. 

While they’re not what’s most important to us as followers of Jesus (not by a long shot!), most of us do want to have a good return on our labors—at home and in the workplace. We want to know that our efforts are fruitful. The worldly metrics of dollars and client lists simply make for easy to measurement. We lack better yardsticks for the things that matter most and thus—perhaps unwittingly—default to salaries, promotions, accolades, and “my child is an honor roll student at Franklin Elementary” bumper stickers. Each of these puffs up a sense of self-importance, causing us to crave yet more, feeding a vicious cycle of . . . you guessed it . . . pride. 

How do we shift toward striving for something of eternal consequence, despite lacking a way to measure that which outlasts us, where moth and rust can’t destroy. 

The Object of Ambition 

Paul told the believers in Philippi to “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit” (Philippians 2:3). He also told the believers at Thessalonica to “make it your ambition to lead a quiet life” (1 Thessalonians 4:11). Taking these two statements together, ambition itself isn’t the problem—what it’s aimed at is what matters.  

So, if our ambitions are aimed at garnering more money, accolades, or social prestige for the ultimate goal of benefitting ourselves (or our sense of self!), we’d do well to heed Paul’s message to the Philippians.  

A Quiet Life 

What, then, might “ambition to lead a quiet life” look like?  

The most valuable advice I got as a Christian solopreneur was to no longer think in terms of a business model and instead develop a life model. This reframing has helped me check my ambition for the underlying motivation and better align it to God’s intentions for me. Instead of a “business model” goal of working with more clients, a life model way of looking at the same objective also recognizes the cost of achieving that goal: for me, less time to write and fewer hours available to be present in the lives of people I love. The ambition-clothed-as-efficiency answer to that problem is to create self-paced, online courses that can reach many people at once without requiring more of my personal time (once they’re made). While courses are a very good business answer for many solopreneurs,  the life-model recognizes that courses come with the cost of losing the personal interaction I value having with my clients. I realized that for me personally, that wasn’t something I was prepared to sacrifice. In both examples, the life model causes me to appreciate the qualitative goodness that can’t be quantified, scaled, or leveraged . . . pointing me toward what I think Paul meant by a “quiet life.” 

Back to 1 Thessalonians 4:11 where Paul explains: 

• . . . mind your own business . . .  Let’s not compare ourselves (our homes, our businesses, our salaries, or even our influence) with anyone else. Let’s do the work—at home or in the marketplace—with a humble recognition that God has given us our jobs.  
• . . . work with your hands . . .  Herein lies a calling to diligence, to complete our tasks faithfully, as for Him (see Colossians 3:23) with awareness of our limits. Bring our whole selves to the effort, using our hands (and minds) to their best end while also acknowledging our human finitude and limits.  
• . . . so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders . . .  Dealing honestly with others, acting with integrity, thereby bringing glory to God and affording us a sense of peace when the sun goes down.  
• . . . so that you will not be dependent on anybody. A quiet life isn’t characterized by extracting maximum value just because more can be charged or earned; instead, a quiet life labors to satisfy one’s own needs such that we don’t burden the community (and can perhaps also offset the needs of others).  

The quiet life sounds a lot like contentment to me. Free from the “hustle” and “grind,” trusting in God’s plans, His provision, and His sufficiency. Here we enjoy God and our communion with Him. 

“But godliness with contentment is great gain” says Paul to his younger companion, Timothy (1 Timothy 6:6). 

If we’re ambitious, let it be for a quiet life. 
If we strive, let it be for contentment.  
If we gain, let it be for His glory.  

Amen.  

—Written by Kirsten Holmberg. Used by permission from the author.